We’re 10 weeks into the NFL season. Here’s what I have for you post–NFL trade deadline …
New York Giants
• If we’re looking into the Giants’ future, here’s my best advice for the people in charge: Go into the next few months with a blank canvas in terms of what you’ll look for in a head coach.
To chart that future, look at the past. The Giants tried a young, rising, quarterback-centric offensive mind (Ben McAdoo), and that lasted two years. They brought in an experienced former head coach with an offensive background (Pat Shurmur), and that lasted two years. Then, they turned to a generalist type of leader to be a CEO head coach (Joe Judge), and that lasted two years. After all that, they returned to an offense-minded leader, tapped Brian Daboll to try and rescue Daniel Jones, and the plug was pulled in Year 4.
It’s fair to look at the big picture in New York and be frustrated. The owner, who made Monday’s move in the midst of a much bigger personal battle, certainly is. And so the idea of looking for someone who can simply develop one player (Jaxson Dart) or jump-start one side of the ball (the offense) would be incredibly short-sighted.
The good news? They get that. The general idea, as it was explained to me, is to find someone who can lead the organization, with other priorities factored in afterward.
So, why pull the plug now? Because, as much as the brass liked Daboll, there wasn’t light at the end of the tunnel. The Giants started 2–8 for the third consecutive year. They haven’t won consecutive games since winning three straight over four weeks in 2023. They had a big win in September over the Chargers, followed by a loss to the lowly Saints. A blown lead followed a win over the world champion Eagles after that in Denver. Three weeks later, in Chicago, the Giants blew another double-digit fourth-quarter lead. Enough was enough.
That’s why on Monday, around lunchtime, Mara let Daboll go, rather than letting the rest of the season play out.
And the rest of the season matters, because much of the 2025 team will be on the ’26 team, regardless of who’s coaching it. Eight of 11 starters on offense (Wan’dale Robinson, Jermaine Eluemunor and Greg Van Roten being the exceptions), and nine of 11 starters on defense (everyone except Cor’Dale Flott and Rakeem Nuñez-Roches) are under contract through next year, which means how this season ends will be significant.
Of course, the Giants starting the process of finding their next leader will be, too.
• I’d expect a similar crew at the head of the table for researching coaching candidates as the Giants had in 2022 (at least for the time being), which includes owners John Mara, Chris Mara and Steve Tisch, as well as Joe Schoen.
With that established, I know a lot of folks are out for blood on the general manager. So, I’ll point out a couple things regarding Schoen.
First, over the past four years, he has helped completely modernize the team’s football operation, building an entirely new scouting system, and draft room, and incorporating analytics and data, not just to support scouting, but also the coaching staff on game day. As a result, for the first time, the Giants’ entire football operation was working under one system, and ownership saw that as a promising step forward.
Second, Schoen’s experience in a similar situation before helps. He was in Miami when the Dolphins fired Joe Philbin four games into the 2015 season, and turned to Dan Campbell, who eventually had Zac Taylor and Lou Anarumo as his play-callers. There was regret in Miami that Campbell wasn’t given a longer look for ’16, given the fight he drew out of that ’15 team. So Schoen will know how to support Mike Kafka and secure the most thorough evaluation of whether the well-regarded interim is viable as a candidate for 2026.
Now, does that guarantee anything for Schoen? It does not. But I think it’s fair to look at a few situations across the NFL over the past couple of years where GMs survived coach firings, and were paired with new coaches (George Paton/Sean Payton in Denver, Chris Ballard/Shane Steichen in Indy, Eliot Wolf/Mike Vrabel in New England, Ryan Poles/Ben Johnson in Chicago), and it seems to be working out.
Now, maybe ownership gets to the end of the season and changes course. That can be hard to predict. But for the time being, that history can illustrate why the smart thing for a team to do is not simply blow everything up so an angry fan base can have its pound of flesh.
Cincinnati Bengals
• The other big news of the week: Joe Burrow is back on the practice field in Cincinnati.
What the Bengals have seen over the past few weeks is a quarterback who’s super motivated and has been trending in that direction. He’s been throwing for a while. He’s been in meetings with the quarterbacks. He’s shown that he’s absolutely not throwing in the towel, despite the frustration he must have over another injury.
So this week, he’ll be out on the practice field. The Bengals want to start getting him real reps, going through his progressions, and ripping the ball. I’d expect those would come in 7-on-7 situations, some of which could be generated by Cincinnati managing Joe Flacco’s shoulder injury. For now, everything will be controlled to move him beyond the point where he’s just throwing to trainers and equipment guys.
From there, this will be a feel thing. How Burrow is feeling is one piece of it. Where the Bengals are in the standings will be another factor. This week’s game against the Steelers isn’t happening—coach Zac Taylor already established that—and the Patriots/Ravens short-week turn might be pushing it, too. But if the Bengals can scratch through that stretch and remain in the hunt, Week 14 against Buffalo could be realistic.
Now, Burrow is super competitive, and we’re way ahead of where we thought we’d be, so is there a chance to push the envelope? Maybe. But the Bengals will be careful. He’s one of four top guys at his position in the sport (along with Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson, in some order), and there’s a specific responsibility that comes with having someone in that rare air that I know the organization won’t take lightly.
That said, personally, it would be cool to see him come out of that tunnel and play relevant football this year.
NFL officiating
• The league would like people to think that dissatisfaction with officiating is overblown, but the reality is there’s a lot of it within their own ranks.
As part of last week’s midseason exec awards poll, I asked the question: What trend have you noticed in 2025 across the league (a question I’ll ask from time to time through these polls to keep up on stuff) that’s new or different? Twenty-two of 44 voters answered that question, and shaky officiating was the answer for a half-dozen of them. That wasn’t me leading them to get an answer, either. It was an open-ended question that they took in that direction.
“Just when you thought officiating couldn’t get any worse …” texted one assistant GM.
“Inconsistency with replay assist/expedited replay/virtual measurement—all have been unreliable and inconsistent from game-to-game,” said another assistant GM. “There’s a crisis of confidence at this point.”
These responses were notable. My solution has been for the league to, after the season, evaluate everything and consider taking officiating down to the studs to rebuild it (rather than just constantly tweaking and adding stuff), with the new-age resources available that weren’t even a few years ago.
And we’ll cover more answers from that poll in the coming weeks.
Matthew Stafford’s MVP case
• One other follow-up on that poll: I noticed at the end of Fox’s 49ers-Rams broadcast that Davante Adams came across Matthew Stafford’s postgame interview with Erin Andrews, and shouted “MVP” into the camera. So I asked him about that after the game.
“He’s playing good ball. He’s taking great command of the huddle, the offense and the team,” Adams said. “But it’s the way he bounces back after things don’t go his way, too, that’s really what shows me he’s the MVP.”
To update, Stafford is on pace for a 4,584-yard, 47-touchdown, four-interception season. Before he won the poll, I honestly didn’t realize he was having that type of year. But he would be MVP for me right now, too, with Drake Maye and Jonathan Taylor close behind, and Patrick Mahomes lurking as a candidate that could surge from here.
Seattle Seahawks
• Sometimes, you pick up things during camp that stick with you—and one for me this summer was how everyone in Seattle was saying how aligned the Seahawks were behind second-year coach Mike Macdonald, who missed the playoffs with 10 wins in Year 1.
I was thinking about that when I spoke with him on Sunday, after the Seahawks’ blowout, as it became apparent how much he likes the group he’s working with.
So I asked about that straight-up, and got a straightforward answer.
“I love our team,” Macdonald said, before repeating himself. “I love our team. We got a great group.”
Green Bay Packers
• Jordan Love said it after Monday night’s 10–7 Packers loss to the Eagles: “You feel like, as an offense, you’re letting the defense down.”
I’ll be interested to see if Matt LaFleur considers any changes, and particularly across an offensive line that had big problems with the Eagles’ defensive front. What makes things worse is that center Elgton Jenkins will be out with a lower-leg fracture. So do the Packers shuffle the deck now with former first-rounder Jordan Morgan? It’ll be interesting to see.
Then, there’s the impact of the team losing tight end Tucker Kraft, who’d become a focal point for the passing game, until he tore his ACL last week against the Panthers. The Packers have a lot of depth in the skill group. However, there’s not a real No. 1, so having one emerge (Matthew Golden? Christian Watson? Dontayvion Wicks?) over the back half of the year could help, too.
Philadelphia Eagles
• As for the Eagles, it was hard to miss Jaelan Phillips’s impact on Monday night.
And I’ll say it again: GM Howie Roseman’s genius wasn’t flipping a third-round draft pick for him. It was having three third-rounders, which gave him the flexibility to surround that capital for a rental. How’d he get the other two? One will come as a result of losing Milton Williams, who the Eagles drafted and developed at a position where they had the depth of homegrown talent (Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis) to let a guy of his caliber go. The other came from the 2024 trade of Haason Reddick, with Roseman taking a pick that was two years off.
You can do these things when you have a stable, well-run organization devoid of people making short-sighted calls based on job security.
Washington Commanders
• The Commanders’ nightmare season is a good example of how much the league can change year-to-year. Washington has lost five consecutive games, the past four by 20-or-more points, and somehow are an underdog to Miami for Sunday morning’s Madrid game.
One beneficiary here would be the Texans, who have the Commanders’ second- and fourth-round picks, with the former now potentially landing in the 30s.
Bears-Vikings matchup
• My under-the-radar big game in Week 11? It’s the Bears in Minneapolis to face the Vikings.
I think we will find out some things on both teams by 3 p.m. CT Sunday.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as How the Giants Should Approach Their Head Coach Search.
